Cinders
by Dark Hope Assassin
Summary: If given the chance, she would burn him to cinders.
1. Day 01: Beginning

_Day 01: Beginning._

As far as beginnings went, theirs always started off on the wrong foot.

The very first time they interact properly, they are forced to compete over who gets to inherit the Enraiha, and, respectively, the future of the clan.

If he had to be completely honest, even then Kazuma had no interest in those things. He neither wanted them, nor wished for them. The only reason he even took part in that ridiculous farce was because he wasn't even given an option of declining the duel.

She'd singed him quite well back then. Thinking back on it, he could still remember the pain of the flames she'd sent his way.

They are given a second chance at a beginning four years later.

Four years aren't really all that long a time—especially to those who have lived to see many seasons come and pass—but in the lives of a couple of teenagers, four years are enough time to change the way they look at one another completely.

When they meet anew, it's like they are different people. She still wields the Enraiha she inherited that fateful day, and she's still just a loud little girl to him, future head of the Kannagi or not.

And, once again, they got off on the wrong foot right off the bat.

When they first meet again after four years of him having disappeared, she comes at him, swinging her sword and throwing around accusations, hating his guts for no better reason than she simply believed she was just in doing so.

To Kazuma, that didn't really matter at all. He had no interest in dealing with her or her family anymore. The fact that the beginning of their bond had been shaky didn't matter at all to him, because he wasn't planning on starting anything with the Kannagis anyway.

He _shouldn't have cared_, at least. And he was convinced he didn't, right up to the point when her whole frame started burning with those brilliant, enchanting crimson flames.

When he came back to Japan after four years of self-induced exile, Kazuma's plans had been simple: fight his father, test his strength, triumph and get the hell away from that accursed family before they could ruin his life any further than they already had.

He never accounted for wanting to start something with the future head of the clan. He never thought a little girl like her—too volatile, too innocent, too oblivious for his taste—would be able to catch his attention, but before he knows it, he is captivated by the subtle beauty of her soul that shines through only when she is forced up against a proverbial wall.

It was true that despite the fact they had a chance at a beginning twice, both times had been rather abysmal. The first was clue enough, but the second one was solid proof that beginnings were most definitely not their forte.

However, once he set his mind to it, Kazuma didn't really believe that mattered. After all, if they started off unsteadily, the only way they could continue from there on was up.

And, besides, even if they didn't start out all that well, what's left is to focus on the follow up.

And Kazuma was quite _good_ at follow up.

* * *

A/N: What is this I don't even—Well. Er. This sounded better in my mind. xD;

It's the start of something. I'm not really sure how far it will go but I felt like dabbling a little into this fandom again (while I am procrastinating finishing off the 2 other stories in this fandom I have sitting on my desktop, getting slowly written out in a not entirely satisfactory fashion).

Chapters in this story will be connected—or at least I will try to keep them seem connected, even if they work as stand-alone pieces as well.

I don't even know what I'm doing anymore, so don't mind me.

_9th March, 2013._


	2. Day 02: Accusation

_Day 02: Accusation_.

He notices is immediately after getting to know her.

Although, he has to admit, it doesn't really take a genius to notice it.

Ayano seems to have a knack of throwing accusations around.

It's not hard to notice, especially since that's the first thing she does upon meeting her supposedly long-lost cousin for the first time in four years.

She spares no time for pleasantries and making sensible conversation—instead, she's fully focused on exacting vengeance upon him for something she claims he has done.

Kazuma finds her habit of jumping to conclusions at her own convenience somewhat amusing. Still, what it mostly does is solidify his impression of her as a child—infantile in her refusal to listen to reason or to give things serious consideration before making a conclusion.

Even after their initial misunderstanding is cleared up, she doesn't seem to let up on her suspiciousness of him. What's more, she seems intent on blaming all the world's evils upon him for some incomprehensible reason.

Not that Kazuma cares. She's just a kid, after all—her way of behaving proved as much to him.

What amused him even more, though, is that as bent on making wild accusations as she is, she seems to handle pretty badly being accused herself. When he points out her faults and failures—like with that Ryuuya guy—her cheeks flush with shame and her eyes become downcast, her whole countenance exuding a repentant aura.

Truthfully, he finds that hilarious. He can't get enough of it. Maybe he's more of a sadist at heart than he believed?

But he digressed. The matter at hand was that, with all her haste in jumping to conclusions that, if something is wrong, it must definitely be his fault in some way, Kazuma was quite certain that her opinion of him was incredibly low.

That's when something happens with the water clan – they are attacked by a wind user who seems to fit Kazuma's description perfectly, and it happens on a day when he has no alibi for where he has been or what he has done.

He ends up getting blamed as the culprit, regardless of his insistence that he doesn't really give a damn about what the water clan was up to and he'd never waste his precious time sabotaging them.

It's a situation very similar to the one before with the Fuuma clan. And, frankly, it makes Kazuma realize how little he cares for the irony of history repeating itself.

When he gets blamed for the incident, he expects that Ayano will be one of the first people jumping against him when word reaches her ears. She'll be on his case, breathing down his neck and demanding explanation for each and every action of his that day, pointing an accusatory finger at him along with the rest of the morons who seemed to think him a convenient scapegoat for all their mishaps.

Imagine his surprise when, instead of jumping in offensive, Ayano flushes red with anger and slams her balled fist into the table she is sitting on when the water mages tell her what they think has happened.

Her outburst surprises all her family members around her, but Kazuma and her father seem the most awed by her reaction.

"That's so stupid! Kazuma might be a bastard, but he'd never do something so stupid and pointless!" she states with such an air of finality that her tone leaves little room for discussion.

Her claim makes the Contractor's eyes widen considerably. He'd been so sure that she'd jump the opportunity to ride his back for yet another thing he had _not_ done, that he found himself completely blindsided by her quickness to react in his defence instead.

The water mages insisted that he didn't have an alibi for that afternoon, so he was guilty in their eyes until proven wrong. That statement seemed to aggravate Ayano's volatile temper further, for her face contorted with evident rage.

"Fine then! I will find the culprit behind this myself! And when I do, you will apologize for making wrong accusations to the people who deserve it!" she announced loudly, before pushing herself to her feet and walking out of the room with a flourish of her long pink hair.

And find the culprit she did, all on her own as well. She refused to accept Kazuma's help when he offered it, because she believed that the water clan users would trust her evidence less if it was acquired with his assistance.

When she presented the case to the people themselves, handing them the real perpetrator, they bowed and apologized to the Contractor for their misguided accusations.

After they were gone, Kazuma spent a good amount of time staring at Ayano's profile. When she eventually noticed his attention, her cheeks flooded with colour and her brows furrowed over her eyes in embarrassment.

"What are you staring at people's faces like that for?! Don't you know it's rude!" she squeaked out nervously.

On any other day, her reaction would've made Kazuma chuckle in amusement. Now, though, he only hummed thoughtfully as he continued staring at her.

"I was just thinking—I always thought that you seemed to get a rise out of accusing me for anything and everything that goes wrong around here. Yet you were so quick to defend me in front of that other clan. It bothers me that I can't for the life of me figure out why."

His eloquent response appeared to make Ayano flush an even deeper shade of red. He was sure that the hue of her face was starting to match that of her colour perfectly before she turned her head away from him.

"Well!" she muttered under her breath. "S-Since we're partners now, it didn't seem right for people to go around spilling lies about my partner. S-so I thought I should correct their misunderstanding before they hurt your reputation any more than you already have done so for yourself."

At that last claim, she threw him an evil glare over her shoulder. The scathing look didn't faze him the least. He only gave her another long, thoughtful hum in his throat.

"Still, you had no reason not to believe it was someone other than me. How come you took my side? It still makes no sense."

"Stop nit-picking at every little thing!" she chastised a bit too heatedly not to make him even more curious. "I said what I said and I was right in the end! That's all that really matters."

"But you're so fond of accusing me for all the evil in the world. How come this time you sided with me? I'm curious."

After a pause so long he had been certain that she wasn't going to continue the topic any further, Kazuma finally wrestled out of her the answer that he'd been looking for.

"I knew that you wouldn't do that kind of petty thing. So I just stood behind that belief. That's all."

She said it so quietly that if his hearing had been any worse, he wouldn't have been able to pick up on it.

Her confession made Kazuma's eyes widen again, and he stared at her with newfound awe.

He'd been completely right: she had always had a knack of accusing him for anything and everything. When they first met, that was the first thing she'd done.

However, after all the things they'd been through together, an element that hadn't existed when they first met had surfaced.

The element of trust between them.

She knew him now. She knew what she could expect of him. She knew what he could, and could not do.

She trusted him to be who he had shown her he was.

She trusted that "Kazuma isn't the kind of person to do that kind of stupid stuff for no good reason".

Throughout most of their acquaintance, he had always regarded her as a child. She was little better than a kid, regardless what she did—whether she was fighting demons, arguing with him or outing with her friends.

Now, however, with this most sincere and rarely mature confession of hers, Kazuma couldn't help but feel his impression of her as a loud, wilful kid shake in its foundations.

His body takes action as though with a mind of his own. He's already pulled her to him before he can think what he's doing. He keeps her body pressed against him even as she feebly struggles to get out of his hold, demanding what was suddenly up with him.

His mouth is next to her earlobe, his breath fanning against her sensitive flesh. He lets his lips ghost over her lobe in an act of intimacy he rarely affords with her.

Then, he says, quietly enough only for her to hear, even if there were anyone else within earshot.

"Thank you, for believing in me."

He presses a chaste kiss to the pulse point of her neck before relinquishing his hold on her.

On any other day, he'd find the way she's blushing madly and stuttering incoherently after his releasing her hilarious.

Right then, though, he found her only endlessly endearing.

She was still just a kid, yet to grow out of her penchant for jumping to conclusions and making wild accusations—but she was learning.

She was learning and she was growing up.

And, honestly? After revelations like this one, he was _very_ eager to see what she would end up growing up into.

* * *

A/N: Chapter two, set after the end of the anime! I'm really glad all of you guys enjoyed the beginning of this! I hope you enjoyed this installment as well. :3 Another one coming soon!


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